Passages

Why does Daniel get down on his knees to pray three times a day with his windows opened toward Jerusalem (Dan 6:10)? The reason is that prayerful bodies matter in the book of Daniel. Though supposedly serving in the Persian king Darius’s government, in this tale Daniel disobeys the king’s law to worship him. Instead, Daniel follows his own religious law, developing habitual practices that involve his body. His posture of kneeling is unique in the book and offers a strong contrast to pagan religious practice in the Babylonian and Persian Empires, as well as the Greek Seleucid Empire, which threatened the Jerusalem temple at the time of the book’s composition. In Greek religion, praying individuals stood with hands outstretched, palms facing upward. Prayers were recited aloud in public accompanied by a sacrifice. In contrast, Daniel prays in isolation in an upper room, kneeling down in “service.” Daniel’s prayer signals his resistance to empire and his radically alternative allegiance. Rather than offer honor and praise to King Darius in a public space, he seeks mercy by confessing sin, praying, and praising his own God.

In the wake of the destruction of the first temple in Jerusalem, Judeans learned to be faithful without their central place of sacrifice by developing embodied practices of prayer. Individual and group prayers provided an alternate means of communication with their ancestral god. Books composed in the Second Temple period, like Ezra-Nehemiah, Judith, Tobit, and Daniel, are rich in prayers and references to prayer practices. Daniel’s kneeling posture before windows opened toward Jerusalem should be understood in relation to a prayer offered by King Solomon at the dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem. Solomon’s prayer, also offered while kneeling (1Kgs 8:54), emphasizes the importance of Jerusalem as a central fulcrum by which prayers might reach God in heaven. It suggests that prayers offered by those in exile and directed toward Jerusalem will be effective. (1Kgs 8:46-48). Moreover, by praying three times a day, Daniel synchronized his body with the divinely ordained times of temple sacrifice. His prayer in Dan 9 likewise is likewise timed with the evening sacrifice (Dan 9:3). Thus Daniel’s bodily posture claims space and time as his own in a distinctively Judean way.

The story of the three young men in Dan 3 also illustrates the prominence of proper worship by contrasting the behavior of royal bodies with the disciplined bodies of Judeans. Civic religion in the Babylonian Empire was a matter of great public pageantry, intended to draw honor and attention to the ruler as well as the patron deity of the city. Praying was not a matter of private devotion done quietly but an embodied spectacle. Nebuchadnezzar is satirically depicted as a man of outsized emotions, with a comparably out-of-control body and misplaced devotion. He falls on his face in prostration to worship Daniel (Dan 2:46), then commands that all peoples and nations worship a ninety-foot golden statue. The refusal of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to “fall down” mechanically in prostrate worship before the metal body results in their “falling” into the fiery furnace. Their bound, sacrificial bodies are then divinely liberated in order to walk freely. The prayer practices of the Judean exiles signal to Daniel’s audience that managing one’s body properly can provide strength against the ravages of empire.

Contributors

Judith H. Newman is associate professor of Hebrew Bible and early Judaism at Emmanuel College and in the Department for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto. Her research interests include the ritual performance of texts, formation of scripture, and early biblical interpretation. She is the author of Praying by the Book: The Scripturalization of Prayer in Second Temple Judaism (Scholars Press, 1999) and Early Jewish Prayers in Greek, co-authored with Pieter van der Horst (de Gruyter, 2008).

Related Publications

Of or relating to ancient lower Mesopotamia and its empire centered in Babylon.

The king of the Persian Achaemenid Empire at its peak, from 550-486 B.C.E. His decree to continue the rebuilding of the Temple appears in Ezra 6.

A broad, diverse group of nations ruled by the government of a single nation.

general condition of living away from ones homeland or specifically the Babylonian captivity

Relating to or associated with people living in the territory of the southern kingdom of Judah during the divided monarchy, or what later became the larger province of Judah under imperial control. According to the Bible, the area originally received its name as the tribal territory allotted to Judah, the fourth son of Jacob.

The people of the tribe of Judah or the southern kingdom of Judah/Judea.

(n.) One who adheres to traditional or polytheistic religious and spiritual belief and practice systems; sometimes used to refer broadly to anyone who does not adhere to biblical monotheism.

Relating to the system of ritual slaughter and offering to a deity, often performed on an altar in a temple.

The structure built in Jerusalem in 516 B.C.E. on the site of the Temple of Solomon, destroyed by the Babylonians seventy years prior. The Second Temple was destroyed in 70 C.E. by the Romans responding to Jewish rebellion.

Dan 6:10

Daniel in the Lions' Den10Although Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he continued to go to his house, which had windows in its upper room open tow ... View more

1Kgs 8:54

Solomon Blesses the Assembly54Now when Solomon finished offering all this prayer and this plea to the Lord, he arose from facing the altar of the Lord, where h ... View more

1Kgs 8:46-48

46“If they sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin—and you are angry with them and give them to an enemy, so that they are carried away captive to ... View more

Dan 9

Daniel's Prayer for the People1In the first year of Darius son of Ahasuerus, by birth a Mede, who became king over the realm of the Chaldeans—2in the first yea ... View more

Dan 9:3

3Then I turned to the Lord God, to seek an answer by prayer and supplication with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.

Dan 3

The Golden Image1King Nebuchadnezzar made a golden statue whose height was sixty cubits and whose width was six cubits; he set it up on the plain of Dura in th ... View more

Dan 2:46

Daniel and His Friends Promoted46Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face, worshiped Daniel, and commanded that a grain offering and incense be offered to him ... View more

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